Meditate

Numbers 13

13. Exploring Canaan

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

    ³ So at the LORD’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. ⁴ These are their names:

   from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur;

    ⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;

    ⁶ from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;

    ⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;

    ⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;

    ⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;

    ¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;

    ¹¹ from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;

    ¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;

    ¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;

    ¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;

    ¹⁵ from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.

    ¹⁶ These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

    ¹⁷ When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰ How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

    ²¹ So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. ²² They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, Eshkol means cluster; also in verse 24. they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. ²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

Report on the Exploration

    ²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

    ³⁰ Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

    ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³² And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Luke 7:11-17

7. Miracles of Jesus

¹¹ Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. ¹² As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

    ¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

    ¹⁶ They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

Jesus and John the Baptist

   

Psalm 14

14. Psalm 14

¹ The fool The Hebrew words rendered fool in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient. says in his heart,
   “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
   there is no one who does good.

    ² The LORD looks down from heaven
   on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
   any who seek God.
³ All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
   there is no one who does good,
   not even one.

    ⁴ Do all these evildoers know nothing?

   They devour my people as though eating bread;
   they never call on the LORD.
⁵ But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
   for God is present in the company of the righteous.
⁶ You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
   but the LORD is their refuge.

    ⁷ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
   When the LORD restores his people,
   let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!